ff to the left to
join the cavalry under Wilson which was to lead the advance, moving along
a pike road and then crossing the little river Opequan.

Dick rode close behind Colonel Winchester and Warner and Pennington were
on either side of him. Not far away from them was Sergeant Whitley,
ready for use as a scout. Shepard had disappeared already in the
darkness. They joined Wilson's command and waited in silence. At three
o'clock in the morning the word to advance was given and the whole
division marched forward in the starlight.

They had not gone far before Shepard rode back telling them that the
crossing of the Opequan was guarded by Confederate troops. The cavalry
increased their speed. After the long period of inaction they were
anxious to come to grips with their foe. Dick still rode knee to knee
with Warner and Pennington, as they went on at a rapid pace in the
starlight, the fields and strips of forest gliding past. Men on
horseback talk less at night than in the day and moreover these had
little to say. Their part was action, and they were waiting to see what
the little Opequan would disclose to them.

"Do you think they'll have a big force at the river?" asked Pennington.

"No," replied Dick. "I fancy from what we've heard of Early's army that
he won't have the men to spare."

"But we can look for a brush there," said Warner.

The night began to darken as a premonition of the coming dawn, a veil
of vapor was drawn before the stars, trees blended together and the air
became chill. Then the vapor was pierced in the east by a lance of
light. The rift widened, and the pale light of the first dawn appeared
over the hills. Dick, using his glasses, saw a flash which he knew was
the Opequan. And with that silvery gleam of water came other flashes of
red and rapid crackling reports. The Southern sharpshooters along the
stream were already opening fire.

A great shout went up from the cavalry. All the forces restrained so
long in these young men burst forth. The dawn was now deepening rapidly,
its pallor turning to silver, and the river, for a long length, lay
clear to view before them. Trumpets to right and left and in the center
sounded the charge, the mellow notes coming back in many echoes.

The horsemen firing their own carbines and swinging aloft their sabers,
galloped forward in a mighty rush. The beat of hundreds of hoofs made a
steady sound, insistent and threatening. The yellow ligh